As regional head of commercial banking at HSBC, Simon Vaughan Johnson has a front row seat to the resuscitation of the Middle East’s biggest corporate players. He recently sat down with Executive to discuss where we should be looking for the first signs of economic recovery in the region. E What will be the drivers of the recovery? I look after commercial banking, so the Dubai government is not in my segment. However, we do have customers who are suppliers and contractors to that segment. I’ve been and come back to Dubai – I first saw it when it was pretty simple in 1988, then I came back again in 1991 and returned to live in the UAE again in 1995. I have seen an amazing transformation. I believe that, in the long term, [Dubai] will absolutely come back again and HSBC as a group (and I personally) also
